textproduct: Quad Cities

KEY MESSAGES

- A cold, below normal temperature regime still on track for this week, with several nights nearing Cold Weather Advisory criteria especially north of Hwy 30.

- There is still a low chance for a weak clipper or two to scoot by somewhere in the vicinity of the area this week, but dry air and little to no moisture return suggest a mainly dry week ahead. May have to wait until late in the weekend for the next clipper sn

SHORT TERM /THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT/

Issued at 155 PM CST Mon Jan 26 2026

The current water vapor loop was showing a nice looking vort max system from just southeast of LK Winnipeg and trailing back into central Saskatchewan Canada. This complex to clipper it's way down and dig acrs the GRT LKS through Tue afternoon. The trailing portion of this wave will be the part that propagates acrs the local area on Tuesday but in a mainly channeled fashion. This wave to kick up some light snow/snow showers acrs MN and WI, but the dry airmass it is rolling into doesn't support much of anything of consequence. The local area will probably stay dry and get skimmed by some patchy AC in the north. Strong low to mid level flow such as a 40-50 KT H85 MB LLJ will wrap around the wave, and temporarily be a warmer air pump up acrs the area into Tue before we get on it's backside with veering flow to the northwest tapping into cooler air again as Tuesday progresses. Enough LLVL P-gradient to keep southwesterly sfc winds going 15 to 25 MPH tonight allowing temps to continue their steady to slow rise trends late this afternoon and into Tue morning. Temps may hold up in the low to mid teens overnight, but the brisk winds still to keep wind chills well below zero especially this evening.

Tuesday...Despite eventually trending into a blustery post-frontal CAA regime, a milder start to the day and the mixing winds to help get high temps in the mid to upper teens south of Hwy 30. Northwest mixing profiles on BUFKIT suggest sfc wind gusts of 30 to 35 MPH at times Tuesday, helping make for some drifting snow in open areas that have adequate snow cover. Will not put it in the grids for now, but there may be some post-frontal patches of stratocu cloud decks streaming down acrs the area and possibly produce some flurries at times in the morning through early afternoon.

Cold night Tuesday night, and even with west sfc winds decreasing, we are getting some wind chills nearing Cold Advisory criteria up toward the Hwy 20 Corridor. Ambient lows in the low single digits both above and below zero into early Wed morning.

LONG TERM /WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY/

Issued at 155 PM CST Mon Jan 26 2026

The latest suite of medium range guidance suggest that portions of the western CONUS upper ridge gets beat on by rounds of east Pacific wave energy, it will look to maintain enough to keep broad steering flow northwesterlies going acrs much of the central into southeastern CONUS the rest of the week and into next weekend. A couple of bouts of re-enforicng strong Canadian high pressure systems down acrs the central part of the country will also help the cause, with the cold and below normal temp regime looking to hold on through much of the extended range. Generally a mainly dry looking regime as well with just a few weak embedded clipper waves dropping down the upper midwest at times with little moisture to work with.

AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z TUESDAY/

Issued at 1138 AM CST Mon Jan 26 2026

Generally a VFR TAF cycle through Tuesday morning, with sfc wind speed and direction change the main challenges. This do to a clipper system dropping down acrs the northwestern GRT LKS that will induce gusty southwesterly sfc winds ahead of it into tonight, and then veer them around back to the west-northwest behind a passing cold front Tue morning. With a strong southwesterly LLJ ramping up acrs the area by this evening, have mentioned some low level wind shear(LLWS) in most of the TAFs but they should remain gusty at the sfc as well. A low chance for some post-fontal patchy MVFR stratocu cloud decks moving down acrs the area on Tuesday and even a few flurries out of them, but too uncertain to mention in the TAFs at this point and if they will move over a TAF site or not.

DVN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

IA...None. IL...None. MO...None.